Not So Perfect
by ATLALOK1109
Summary: Amoretia is a land where people can shape shift. Read the story, sorry i suck at summaries but the story's WAAAYYYY better
1. Chapter 0

Everyone's heard those children's stories in which the main character is the almighty powerful and it's really hard to defeat them, right? Does it annoy you? Most probably, yes.

Meet Ashling, a mythical shape-shifter in the land of Amorethia. She can shape-shift into a griffin which is pretty rare, but nothing compared to her brother, Jacc who can shape-shift into the rarest mythical creature of all, a dragon! She lives in the shadow of her brother with no one to console her BUT him. Her parents don't pay attention to her at all, thinking of her as someone who doesn't deserve more attention than her brother. Living a life with no friends and deprived of adventure, what will happen to her when a man tries to reveal Amorethia to the mortal world and she's the only one who can stop him?


	2. Chapter 1

"Ash, hurry up!" My brother teased,"You take forever to set everything up! The good thing is that we live right next to Shape-Shift School (SSS) so this gives you way more time to set up!"

I grumbled, "Come on, stop it! I always have to set up twice as much as you do! AND, I have more muscle than you! You know that!"

"Why do you have to be so sensitive Ashling? I was only teasing!"

"And so was I!" I yelled, annoyed.

Jacc thought he had a harder life than me but it wasn't true! Both Mom and Dad loved him, and they hated me! They never payed attention to me and Jacc basked in their spotlight of attention! And all of this because he was a dragon shape-shifter and I was a griffin shape-shifter!

All the time, my parents were like, "Jacc does this, Jacc does that, why aren't you like your brother Ashling?" They were always disappointed in something that I did, even if I tried my hardest.

Irritated, I stalked off to the changing room so that I could change into my training uniform, gray sweat pants and a red, baggy shirt with a gold griffin on it. I quickly changed and stormed out of the changing rooms to be blocked by one of Jacc's friends, Jren. He's a hippogriff, so we have some of the same abilities, like flying. He's Jacc's age, so he's two years older than me. We used to be friends but when I found out that he liked me last year, it totally ruined our friendship. Jren was tall, the same height as Jacc, so he was about five foot four. He had dark brown eyes and shaggy hair that reached his neck.

"Hey Ashling,"

"What do you want? I'm in a rush."

"You look great as usual to-"

"Cut the garbage Jren, and get to the point."

"You know how we have sparring class next?"

"Ya, why?" I asked, suddenly interested.

"Do you wanna be partners?" Jren inflated, thinking that maybe I would be interested.

"I can't," Jren deflated, "Sorry, but I have to go against two teachers,"

"Who?"

"Mrs. Sliter and Mr. Basker,"

"Ooh, that must suck!" I gave Jren a glare and was about to stalk off until he put his hand on my shoulder and said, "It was nice talking with you after a year," Turning around, I glared at his hand pointedly until he took it off.

"Is that it Jren?"

"Uhhhhh, you know how things haven't been going..." He mumbled something and looked at the ground. I wanted to slap him but instead, I just left. I had to get to sparring class!


	3. Chapter 2

Breathing in, I concentrated on my mythical form, a gold griffin with red feathers around it's muscled neck and the legs. I tried not to get distracted by all of the students watching me like hawks, waiting for the duel to start. I felt a tingly motion taking over my whole body and there a soft swoosh. Opening my eyes, I quickly surveyed my opponents. A 15 foot long cobra, Mrs. Sliter, and a basilisk, Mr. Basker. The basilisk gave a loud hiss, meaning the fight would start. Quickly, I flew up into the air, and gave an ear - piercing shriek, and dived down at Mrs. Sliter. At the last moment, I dived at Mr. Basker and extending his claws, I picked up his tail. Grunting with the effort, I lifted him 30 feet above the ground, let him go, and dived down again, grabbing the part of his body right below the head so that he wouldn't be able to bite me. I did this a few more times, every time flying up higher and higher every time. He hissed really loudly, meaning that he gave up.

"One down, one more to go!" I thought, and flew into the out if bounds section, carefully setting Mr. Basker down. Then, I quickly got up and swiftly flew back to take care of Mrs. Sliter. She would be harder to handle because she had seen how I had handled Mr. Basker and would be more careful.

I hovered right above her, daring her to spit her poison at me, or extend to her full length, but she didn't. Everything was going according to plan. I taunted her from some more time but I got bored eventually. I knew that she was biding time, trying to wait until I was tired, so I decided to pretend I was getting tired. Ever time I flapped my wings, I pretended it was getting harder. She thought I actually was tired so she extended her full length and tried to grad my talon. I was prepared. I quickly grabbed her neck and then flew down. I settled down her neck and she made a hissing sound like Mr. Basker when he gave up. I loosened my grip slightly and then she struck me square in the chest. Startled, I fell off of her, struggling to breathe. I felt a slight tingle and realized I was human again, making me even more vulnerable. I had trouble breathing because of the poison but I had to keep going. Staggering, I drew my sword, and sliced at Mrs. Sliter and tried to slash at her tail and made a gigantic slash but it wasn't enough to make her give up. She's as tough as a rock. Mrs. Sliter hissed and struck me again in the chest, causing me to fall and close my eyes. Then everything went black.

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I woke up in the school infirmary. Jacc and Jren standing at my bedside. I gave a weak smile at them and they whooped.

"Well you FINALLY got up! We've already missed most of selected choice weaponry class!" Jacc informed me. Count on your brother to ruin your day. Grumbling, I made a move to get up but quickly Jacc and Jren held me down.

"Don't get up! You're not allowed to!" Jren said, with a motherly tone.

"But I'm hungry!" I whined.

"Rest until then Ash," Jacc replied. The effort of talking and trying to get up took a toll on me and I submitted to the requests of the boys and turned around, and closed me eyes, falling asleep in an instant.

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I woke up again and groaned. Nobody was at my bedside so I decided to get up. No Jren to tell not to and no Jacc to tell me to rest. I slowly got up and groaned. Looking down, I saw I had wrappings around my chest and a tank-top on. THAT'S why Jren and Jacc didn't want me to get up. Oh...

The thing that neither of them knew however, was that if I turned into a griffin, I was automatically healed. No one knew that except for the nurse at the infirmary, but she wouldn't tell anyone. She's like the grandmother I never had. I didn't want to tell anyone other than her or else I'd attract attention, which was undesired. I had figured this out when I was five. I had broken my leg while playing outside and couldn't walk home so I turned into a griffin and flew back. When I had landed, my leg was miraculously healed. I had tested this several times, and every time it had the same results.

Sliding out of bed, I closed my eyes and felt the familiar tingle coursing through my body. I flexed my legs and stretched, feeling my muscles ripple under my golden feathers. Having enough, I concentrated on me human form again. The tingle came and went. Opening my eyes, I stretched and felt no pangs in my chest. Smiling, I ran to the restroom undid my chest wrappings and dressed quickly. I was all good now. Walking out of the restroom, I came face to face with Mrs. Brunner, the nurse. She was a kind old lady, with pitch black hair streaked with gray, and green eyes. Syren eyes. She smiled at me and whispered, "All good?" Smiling, I whispered back, "Yup!" Walking out of my hospital dorm, I ran to the cafeteria and opened the double doors. The moment I walked in, there was immediate silence. I could feel myself getting nervous so I pretended to be interested in the lunch line. I quickly picked up my tray and started walking all the way to back. Half-way there, I passed Jacc's table to be stopped by Jren and Jacc. Since Jacc is a dragon and all, he's super popular with the boys at our school. He has a whole bunch of 'friends', but Jren is one of the only true ones.

"Ashling! Why are you here? We were going to bring you lunch!"

"Sorry Jacc, but I got hungry."

"But your injury!"

"I'm good, no more injury."

"H-How Ashling?!"

"Jren, honey, calm down! I promise, I'm good!" I said in a joking voice. Jren chuckled and motioned for me to sit next to him. Sure, we were suddenly on okay terms now, but I wasn't THAT comfortable with him yet so I walked around the table and wedged myself between Jacc and another one of his friends. I sat down and busied myself in eating my food, trying to ignore Jren staring at me with hurt eyes. After I finished eating my sandwich, I got up to throw away my trash. When I turned around, a girl about my age was staring at me. She had brown hair like me but instead of my maroon colored eyes (an eye color only griffins, phoenixes and dragons have), she had clear gray eyes, probably the type that changed with her emotions.

"Uh... Hi?" I tried to be friendly but I suck at small talk, so my attempt wasn't that great.

"Hi! Are you Ashling? I'm Everyn, an alicorn! You're a griffin right?" So much for my small talk, this girl didn't need any encouragement to start talking. "Are you new here? I saw your sparring practice! You're really good for a new person!" This was definitely awkward.

"Um, actually, I'm not new here, I've -"

"That makes SOOOO much sense now! Come sit with me and my friends!" Everyn grabbed my hand and tugged. I resisted, "Sorry Everyn, but what about tomorrow? I gotta go sit with my brother."

"You have a brother? Who is it? Who is it? Who is it?" The girl was probably on a sugar rush. I pointed at Jacc and then her jaw dropped, and it looked like it was unhinged from the rest of her face.

"Jacc's your brother? Are you serious? I thought he was only child!" Wow, I guess I don't exist. Ouch.

Everyn dragged me towards Jacc's table. Once we came to a stop behind Jren, he looked up, and so did Jacc. Everyn looked at both the boys and squeaked hi while I just stood there looking uncomfortable. Both of them got up and led us out of the cafeteria.

"Ash, you got a new friend? Wow! You've really improved in your social life!"

"Shut up Jren!" I punched him lightly on the arm.

"Hey! Don't punch me!" He said and punched me back. Jacc tutted and then burst out laughing. We joined him in the laughter while Everyn stood there, not knowing what to do. We quieted down.

"Well Ash, I can see you have made a really really REALLY good friend! Good enough that you let her drag you to our table!" Jacc joked. I

laughed and looked at Everyn to see that she was looking at the oblivious Jren with goo-goo eyes. Well I can see she obviously liked Jren. It probably wasn't a surprise because what wasn't there to not like about him? He's tall, funny, forgiving, playful, and cute to most girls.

Jren turned around, saw Everyn looking at him, and blushed ever so slightly. I smiled, it was really cute. He walked over to me and quickly whispered in my ear, "Do you think she likes me?" Everyn looked at me , then him, then me, and her eyes turned a shade darker than they were before. I would have to explain later, but at that moment, I burst out laughing.

"What do you think? Guess Jren!"He looked at the ground sheepishly and muttered, "I think so."

"Exactly! But it's-" And then a loud boom came from inside the cafeteria and I heard my mother yelling, "Shape-shift!" We ran into the cafeteria and quickly, I shape-shifted into a griffin. A hippogriff (Jren), a dragon (Jacc), and an alicorn (Everyn) were standing next to me. I leapt into the air with my friends following me and then we all split up, I went to the entrance and the open door, Jacc went to the exit, Jren went to one wall, Everyn to the other. I dived into the smoke and lifted up the person standing in the middle of it.

After the smoke cleared, I set down the person, who I now realized was a girl, and quickly became a human again. She was about two inches taller than me, probably five feet four inches, with hair that reached her shoulder blades, the same length as mine. She had a tan complexion, like me, brown hair, brown eyes, and it looked like she had been crying based on the streaks running down from her eyes. I opened my mouth to ask if she was alright but my dad came and dragged me away from her while my mom roughly grabbed her and dragged her away to the corner of the room. While I struggled to get out of my dad's grip, my friends ran over to my mom and the girl. I broke away from his grip and ran to the group of people to hear my mom asking the poor girl, "Who are you?" The girl was near tears and then she muttered something. Jacc looked at her with sympathy and so did Everyn and Jren.

"Mom, let her calm down! Stop bombarding her with questions!" My mom looked at me and calmly replied, "Ashling, be quiet. You don't have experience in these things."

"Mom! Let her calm down!" Jacc protested, "Listen to Ash! Please?"

She sighed, "Fine, but only because you asked." I grumbled and looked at the ground. Jren patted my shoulder but I just shrugged him off, hurt by what my mom said.

"Ash, it's okay!" Jren whispered. I looked at him and sighed, "Jren, you know that doesn't help,".

Clearing my throat, I asked the girl, "Who are you? Why did you come here? Take your time and answer, but first take a seat and calm down." I gently took her elbow and walked her to a table. My mom tried to follow but I shook my head. Jren, Jacc, and Everyn slowly came, one by one, after the girl sat down and kept sniffling. Clearing my throat again, I quietly asked her what her name was. She muttered something but I couldn't hear properly. "Did you say Raelin?" The girl nodded and kept sniffling. "Raelin, why are you here? I'm not saying you shouldn't be here, but... Ugh! You know what I mean!"

She took a deep breath and tried stopping her sniffling. I patted her on the back, encouraging her to speak. "I'm here because I want to be shapeshifter. My dad says I'm a shapeshifter and so does my mom, but I don't know what mythical creature I am." Silent tears streamed from her face, flowing down, collecting at her chin, and falling into her lap.

"That isn't possible! You're born knowing what creature you are! Ash calls it something," Jacc butted in, staring at the girl with curious eyes.

"Jacc, it's called mythmal lonwing. You should know this. But you're right, Jacc. Raelin, you should know what creature you are from the moment you were born. The first word you say is the creature you turn into. My first word was griffin, Jacc's was dragon, Everyn's was alicorn, and Jren's was hippogriff, but of course we didn't pronounce it right. What was your first word?"

**Hi guys! I promise this chapter is so much longer! I know... hapter one kinda sucked but this one's better! Please R and R!**

**.../.../...**

"I don't know," Raelin whispered. Her voice was hoarse, but she had stopped crying.

"Don't worry, we'll figure it out," I replied encouragingly. This happened a lot. Many people forgot what creature they were so after they said it due to something they are born with as a child. It was called mythical nonwing.

"I gotta go, okay guys?"

"Where Ash?"

"Jren, there is no need to babysit me!"

"I know, it's just my brotherly love for my favorite sister,"

"I'm your ONLY sister you dork!" I said, laughing. Turning around, I smiled a wistful smile. I wish I was Jacc, having a fun life. I felt like going to the infirmary, my eyes stung from the tears welling up in my eyes.

**.../.../.../**

**So what did you guys think? Thanks for reading! And go check out Hooked by Amber Sunstrike and The Elemental Chronicles : Seeing Green by JasmineMoonBlossom! Both of the stories are written by my real friends and are really really good!**


	4. Author's Note

Hi guys! SO... ya.. hope you like the story so far. Please review or favorite! I'll keep writing but i need reviews so that I'll keep posting. Working on chapter 6 right now.


	5. Chapter 3

**Hope you guys like it!**

* * *

Not So Perfect 3

I reached the infirmary door and slowly pushed it open, wanting to leave if anyone was there. No one was, so I ran into the restroom, locked the door, and burst out crying. I sat on the toilet seat and kept crying. After a while, I fell asleep, comforted by the black blanket slowly surrounding me.

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I woke up because someone was knocking on the door. I tensed, waiting, hoping that they would go away.

"Ashling? Are you there?" A voice whispered. It was Everyn. "If you are and you here me, please come out. Jacc is worried sick, and so am I. Jren," Her tone became harder, "is freaking out. We've been searching for you for an hour now. Please come out if you're in there." Sighing, I got up and unlocked the restroom door. I must have looked terrible with my bed head and the streaks under my eyes, because she gasped.

"Can I come in?" Wearily, I nodded. She tentatively stepped in and closed the door behind her. I gestured for her to sit on the toilet seat but she shook her head and said no, so I settled down on it.

"Hey Everyn."

"Ashling! We've been worried sick about you! Not just Jacc, Jren, and I. It includes EVERYONE who's my friend!" I smiled inwardly, she was probably friends with all the girls at SSS, so that's a lot. I think. I must have been smiling outwardly too, because Everyn snapped, "Ash! Are you listening to me? You're probably dreaming about Jren or some guy!"

"Woah woah woah! How does this have ANYTHING to do with Jren? I thought this was a friendly conversation between me and my new friend about how everyone was worried about me!" I got off the toilet seat and stood at one the corner walls of the restroom, leaning onto the cold gray tile. I must have fired her up by saying that because her eyes turned near black.

"Oh! So you're going to pretend you have no idea what I'm talking about? You just keep pretending that you and Jren have nothing going on between you two. Pretend that you and Jren don't share little secrets and that you don't like each other!"

"WHAT?! This is what all the fuss is about? Let me get this straight, you think that I like Jren? No no no no no! I don't like Jren, I never did, and I never will! Jren's the one who likes me! Seriously! I have no feelings for Jren whatsoever!" Everyn sighed at looked me. "Tell me that while looking at me straight in the eyes."

Lifting my head, I stared into her gray eyes which now looked like the sky before a storm, full of turmoil and patched of light gray and dark gray. "I do not have feelings for Jren whatsoever." She sighed. "I'm sorry Ash... I don't know what came over me."

"Hey it's fine. I mean, I don't know how you feel but it's fine. I was planning on explaining to you the whole Jacc, Jren, and I thing but you got to it first." An awkward silence filled the bathroom. "What happened to Raelin?" Glad to change the subject, Everyn quickly replied, "She's with my friends. They are helping her go through a whole bunch of tests to figure out what creature she is. Come on let's go check it out!" Grabbing my wrist, she dragged me outside of my bathroom sanctuary, outside the infirmary, and into the training hall in about 5 minutes flat. Once we were inside, a group of girls in the middle of the room walked over to us. There were 7 people, including Raelin, Jacc, and Jren. Raelin looked like she was going to burst from happiness.

"Hey? How's it going? Have you figured out what you are yet?"

"I'm a cyclops!" Raelin whooped and Jacc laughed, clapping her on the back.

"Congrats! A new cyclops! This is great for the weapon section! How did the tests work?"

Jacc spoke up, using his 'What I'm about to say is super important so you better listen' voice. "They did a DNA test on Rae and-"

"Rae? I thought her name was Raelin."

"Yup Ash, Rae. She likes the nickname. So back to what I was saying. They gave Rae a DNA test and the DNA structure matched that of either a cyclops or a syren, so they made her imagine herself as a syren in whatever form she wanted herself to look like forever on. She tried that, but she wouldn't transform, so they told her to try a cyclops. She imagined herself as one and guess what? She turned into one!"

"Cool! Come on Raelin! Turn into one! I wanna see! I wanna see! I wanna see!" Everyn excitedly urged. Raelin nodded and closed her eyes. About a minute passed and then next thing you know she was this cyclops! She opened her eyes and looked down at us. She was at least 6 feet tall, a foot taller than I was in griffin form when standing on all four feet. Her eye glittered a deep amber color, different from her normal brown color, as expected, and her hair was short, as short as a boy cyclops hair would be.

"Raelin? Stay on that form, I'm changing to inspect!" I yelled so that it would be easy for her to hear me. I quickly closed my eyes and opened them an instant later to be at staring the top of Raelin's head. I flew up and inspected her. Her form was good, except she was slightly hunched over. Have to tell her to change that later. She had turned into a good sized cyclops and and she had imagined herself with a weapon (a club) and a hammer, which was good for a first timer. I flew down and tapped both of them with my hard beak. The club was fairly hard and didn't break but when I tapped the hammer, a small crack appeared, alowly spreading and turning the hammer turn to dust. I chuckled inwardly, thinking about the time when I had first conjured a weapon and it had cracked when I had poked it with a stick. Flying down to the ground, I closed my eyes and turned back into my human form.

"Raelin, turn back into yourself!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. She nodded and closed her eyes. After a minute or so, a shimmer covered her and once it faded, Raelin stood in the middle, beaming.

"How'd you transform so fast? Jacc and Jren don't transform that fast and Jacc's a dragon! They both take about 3 seconds and you take - like - BOOM! And then you're a griffin!"

"Not A dragon, THE dragon, but I dunno why I transform so fast. It's just natural for me."

"Why'd you tap my weapons and break my hammer?"

"I tapped them to check how strong they were. I didn't break your hammer, it just was so weak, it broke when my beak poked it. And my beak is as hard as the strongest metal there is, so it's not like I was poking really hard, I just brushed it against the hammer. And one thing to work on, don't hunch over. It'll kill you in battle." Raelin looked slightly hurt by my remarks about my beak and dying in battle, but she quickly hid it. "So... Who are these people? Care to introduce me Raelin?" She looked happy once I asked her to introduce me to the other girls.

"This is Sharika," she pointed at a girl with short brown hair and eyes that looked like Mrs. Brunner's. Most probably a syren. She was short and probably reached my nose in height. "This is Toryus," she gestured at a slender girl taller than me by a few inches, about Raelin's height, with long brown hair. She had bluish - green eyes and her shoulder blades jutted out further than they should have. "This is Yeras," a short girl, with bright blue eyes smiled at me. She was probably Sharika's height, and her brown hair reached her shoulders. "And last of all, this is Nidis!" The girl she pointed at was taller then Sharika and Yeras, but not as tall as me or Everyn. She had amber eyes and really long black hair, which reached her waist.

"Hi... So what are your other forms?" I asked, curious.

"Syren," Sharika replied almost immediately. Toryus said she was a sylph, which explained the shoulder bones that jutted out. Yeras turned into a sky blue colored werelight and multiplied herself about 20 times. Nidis proudly responded that she was a werewolf.

They started talking with Raelin and Everyn after responding to me. It made sense why they weren't ready to talk to me. I was a quiet, dark, hard to understand type of person, rarely speaking, only talking when I had to. Them? They were lively, talking all the time, and easy to get along with. I bet you Everyn knew EVERYTHING about Jacc, Jren, and Raelin already. Of course I knew a lot about Jacc, since we were siblings, but Jren, Everyn, and Raelin were different. It had taken about half a year for me to get used to and open up to Jren and another year or two to become good friends. Raelin? I didn't know anything about her except for the fact the she was a cyclops and vice versa. Everyn was a totally different story. She knew a lot about me and I knew almost nothing about her.

I walked over to the inscription wall to my right. It was etched in the magical prophecies that had popped up over the years. It was a gold color right now, which meant a new prophecy was soon to come. It had been golden since Jacc was born. I studied one of the inscriptions which looked newer than the others.

Four will go  
A decision to make  
And seventeen will arrive  
Crossroads await  
The thirteenth shall prevail

It looked formidable, the words hastily etched in the magical handwriting, instead of being elegantly written, one letter after another. I knew about this prophecy. It had appeared in the middle of the night but the prophecy had never started... Or finished.

I reached out to touch it but the training hall doors opened. I spun around, looking to see who it was. A tall, lanky boy with shaggy hair walked in, followed by an equally tall, but well muscled boy who had a buzz cut. Ugh. It was Sathare and Dremer. They were both Jacc's friends. Not his fake friends, but his real friends. They came over to our house a lot. Most of the time, they came and hung out in Jacc's room, but sometimes, just to be annoying, Ardrias, Jren, Jacc or Dremer would sneak into my room and mess it up.

Ardrias had green eyes and was chimera. He looked quiet but if you knew him better, you would know he talked as much as Everyn. Dremer was a werewolf, with the same eye color as Nidis, amber. Instead of being skinny like Nidis however, his body was mainly made up of muscle. I had as much muscle as him, to give you better picture. They were both Jacc's age, so they were 15, while I was 13.

I watched them walk over to Jacc and Jren. They both grinned and high-fived them. What boys do...I'll never understand them. I quietly turned around to see that the golden wall was glowing. It wasn't noticeable but I felt the warmth radiating from it. I backed away, unsure if that was normal or not. I turned around, thinking about asking Jacc if the glowing was normal to see Sharika and Nidis leave the room and Jacc deep in conversation with the boys. Better not disturb him.

I turned around again to study to wall, but instead of being fascinated by the glow, I was blinding by it's now white hot aura. I yelled and stumbled back, rapidly blinking, trying to get away from the wall. The glow was DEFINITELY not normal. I had attracted the attention on everyone in the room and they all ran towards me. By then, I had stopped stumbling and was staring at the wall in awe. A pen had appeared out of thin air and was writing on the inscription wall. My friends started whispering and pointing. I couldn't read what the pen was writing, but I was eager to know.

The light diminished and a voice boomed out, "None was there, now nine has gathered. Split in two, but soon united. Darkness awaits, light is fading. Small shall triumph but anger will hinder." There was an eerie silence. I walked to the wall, almost in a trance, and reached out to touch the new inscription.

None was there  
Now nine has gathered  
Split in two  
But soon united  
Darkness awaits  
Light is fading  
Small shall triumph  
But anger will hinder

It was beautiful. The font was not at all like the others. The others were written in elegant cursive. This was written in something that was cursive... Yet not cursive. It was hard to describe. The words seemed to urge my fingers to trace the letters. My fingers obeyed, slowly getting closer and closer.

When they were a hair's breadth away four hands yanked my arm, snapping me out of the trance I was in. I spun around, angered that someone would so abruptly yank my arm. Ardrias, Jacc, Dremer, and Jren stood sheepishly behind me, all four of them holding my arm in different places. I freed myself of their grasps and stared at them fuming. I noticed that Everyn, Raelin, Toryus, and Yeras stood behind the boys, apparently in shock. It was funny enough to cool me down. Yes, I was annoyed that the boys had all yanked my arm, but I wasn't that mad anymore.

"Now children, no more yanking my arm. Okay?" I asked, directing at the boys. Aniras smirked, Dremer broke into a grin, and Jacc and Jren burst out laughing.

"Yes mother," they all replied, playing along. I laughed, but quickly got silent.

"What was that? I mean, I know that it was a prophecy, so don't state the obvious. But what does the prophecy mean?" There was silence.

"Ash, I think the prophecy was meant for us. It said 'Now nine has gathered,' and there are nine of us in here." I pondered over Jren's words.

"That makes sense." Toryus slowly ventured. I nodded and murmurs of agreement passed through us. All of a sudden, the doors burst open and the council walked in. It consisted of my mother, my father, Jren's dad, Aniras's mom, and Dremer's uncle.

"What happened? Where is the new prophecy?" Dremer's uncle questioned us in his booming voice. I shuffled behind everyone, hoping I wouldn't be singled out. Jacc, noticing that I was hiding behind everyone not ready to make a single peep, stepped forward and took control of the situation.

"Here's the prophecy," he said, pointing at the wall. Funny, I thought, his fingers weren't being dragged towards the wall. The council rushed towards the wall and started scrutinizing the prophecy, all the whole muttering and whispering.

My father cleared his throat. "Who was in the room when this happened?"

Yeras spoke up, "Everyone who's in here right now, except for the adults obviously." They nodded, and started muttering again.

"And who was closest to the wall?" Aniras's mom asked.

"Ash was closest," Ardrias blurted out. Why was he such a loud mouth? His mom looked at him and then saw me hiding behind him. She beckoned me over. Cautiously, I stepped forward, and the slowly walked towards her, unsure of what she was going to do.

"Ashling, what did the wall look like before the prophecy arrived?"

I looked at her feet. Then I looked back up. And did that again. "The wall glowed the slightest bit. Then it started glowing white hot and a magical pen appeared. It wrote the inscription and then this loud, deep voice boomed out the prophecy. Once the light faded and the voice stopped talking, the wall - uh... This is hard to explain but it kinda drew me towards it and then I fell in this sort of trance like state. My hand was drawn towards the wall and I nearly touched it but the boys prevented me from touching it." I breathed out, nervous about speaking out loud for so long. Aniras' mom kindly breathed a soft thank you and then gently pushed me back towards the boys, Everyn, Raelin, and the other girls. Relieved I hurried towards them and stood behind Aniras again, trying to hide and avoid the adults' gaze.

"Children, you may leave the training hall," Dremer's uncle ordered. Nodding, we turned around and hurried out of the room, Dremer leading us. We followed him, trying not to break into nervous wrecks on the way.

Once outside, we all collapsed onto the floor.

"Ash?"

"What Ardrias?"

"What was that about?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

"Well you are the smart one here, sis!" Jacc interrupted. I chuckled and lightly punched him on the arm. We got quiet suddenly, as if we just realized the magnitude of what happened.

"That was real right?" Toryus asked, disbelief showing up on her face.

"It was," Dremer and Yeras replied in unison. Toryus sighed and slumped against Everyn.

Pulling myself out of my shock, I got up and dusted off my shirt. Following me, Jren and Jacc stood up.

"I'm going to the library. Care to join me?" I asked, nodded my head in the direction I was going in. Everyone else groaned and slowly stood. Smiling, I turned around and led the way.

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**So what did you think? Posting next chapter now...**


	6. Chapter 6

**Here's chapter 4! Working on chapter 6 right now!**

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We headed to the library in hushed silence. It felt as if I was covering my ears with earmuffs and had the rest of me with a blanket. I heard Toryus and Raelin muttering about the prophecy and if we were supposed to go on the quest it foreshadowed. I opened my mouth to reply, but quickly shut it, worrying that the two would think I was eavesdropping. I stared ahead, my brain still trying to digest the information. We turned right and awaiting us were the two large oak doors guarding the library and it's vast expanse of books. I smiled just a little bit. The library always cheered me up a little bit. I walked forward and put my hand on the doors.

"Ashling, Jacc, Jren, Ardrias, Dremer, Everyn, Raelin, Toryus, and Yeras would like the permission to enter." I said, in a loud, clear, and confident voice, breaking the smothering silence in the process. Everyone looked at me in surprise and then realized that we had reached the library double doors. The door slowly creaked open, the way an old man would get up after a long nap. We quickly hurried inside before the double doors slowly closed again. I made a bee-line for a red chair that was near the small fire and Jren made a bee-line to the blue chair next to it. I collapsed into my chosen chair and leaned my head against it while everyone else decided to settle around me. Closing my eyes, I started thinking about chosen weaponry class but like it had previously in the day, a warm, black blanket of sleep enveloped me, making me fall into a peaceful slumber. Or what seemed like it.

"Little girl, you will not slip from my grasp yet again! Amorethia will fall and everyone bow down to me!" A voice yelled. I was in a dark room, and I couldn't see anything. I trashed and kicked trying to find the floor when I realized that the searing pain on my arms were created from the iron chains I was hanging from. The irony. Iron was supposedly good luck but what's this? Haha, very funny, I thought.

All of a sudden, a man appeared. I couldn't tell what he looked like, but he looked like a man from earth. Why else would he plot the fall of Amorethia? He was holding something that looked like knives. He took a step closer to me. And then another. And another. Coming closer and closer with every step, causing me to flail and thrash in the air in fright. He laughed now, happy to see me frightened. It was a low, dark, wicked laugh, almost like a cackle but in a different way. I screamed, yelling "Let me go! What are you doing to me?" The man held up his sharp objects,which I now knew were knives and swung his arm towards my heart.

Time seemed to slow down and my world started shaking. In the distance, I heard someone screaming Ashling. It sounded somewhat familiar. Then I realized why. It was my name. But then... I wasn't sure if I could trust anything in this place. What was my name? I ignored the voice and kept thrashing and flailing, desperate to get away from this evil man. Two people appeared in the corners of my vision. One to my right, and the other to my left. They didn't look very familiar, so I thought they were the man's henchmen, frightening me even more. I started screaming again. Not anything in particular. It was just a scream consisting of pure fright.

The person to my right, a girl, started saying, "Come to me, I can help you." She frightened me. Her hair was disheveled, her clothes dirty, and she had dark circles under her eyes. The person to my right, a handsome young man who looked like he was in his twenties looked angered by the girl. He yelled at me, saying I shouldn't listen to her and that I should go to him. The man looked nice and neat, but the way he spoke sounded as if he had bad intentions and thoughts on his mind, unlike the girl who sounded completely honest. I felt drawn to the girl and so I tried to reach out to her. She walked towards me, almost floating, as if the ground didn't exist and she was walking on clouds. Holding out her hand she grabbed my hand and lightly tugged, making the chains fall away, and causing my pain to fade into nothing.


End file.
